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AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
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BREGUET & FILS, HORLOGERS DE LA MARINE ROYALE - No. 3787
sold to Comte de Schouvaloff on 27th December 1823 for 2'520 Francs.
Exceptionally fine and one of the world's first garde temps deck chronometer with double barrels, made in silver. Accompanied by Breguet Certificate No. 2732 and photocopies of the original records.
Provenance
Comte de Shuvalov
Comte de Gondowich
L. Harrison Dulles.
Art of Breguet, Habsburg, 1991, lot 74
Literature:
Illustrated and described by George Daniels in The Art of Breguet, p. 260, fig. 302 a-b.
In a brochure published in 1820 Breguet explains that this type of precision garde-temps was designed to be used on board of a ship or for scientific observation.
The watch was constructed on the same principles as the large 60 hour marine chronometer with double barrels, detent escapement and “par-chute' suspension on both pivots.
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BREGUET & FILS, HORLOGERS DE LA MARINE ROYALE - No. 3787
sold to Comte de Schouvaloff on 27th December 1823 for 2'520 Francs.
Impressive and very elegant at the same time, this type of pocket chronometer, by its conception and design of the dial and movement, differs from all other time-keepers ever produced by any other watch maker in the world. They are the first practical deck watches ever made.
Breguet manufactured less than twenty of them and most were sold either to captains of ships, scientists or high ranking officers.
As of today, only three of these watches are known to have survived; No. 3630, No. 4208 and the one presented here.
Synopsis of brequet's double barrel deck chronometers
3594 - Ducom, Bordeaux
3628 - Captain of Etangs
3630 - Jesuit Dumouchelle
3675 - General Rehbinder
3680 - The State Typography Bureau
3719 - Baron von Humboldt (German naturalist and explorer)
3786 - Ducom, Bordeaux
3787 - The one presented here
3836 - Is still with Breguet
3838 - Captain Tiphaigne
3839 - Grand Marechal Volkonsky
3874 - Simonoff
3990 - Is still with Breguet
4115 - Is still with Breguet
4208 - Heinrich Christian Schumacher of the Altona Observatory, converted to gimbaled marine box
4599 - Is still with Breguet
4652 - Is still with Breguet
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BREGUET & FILS, HORLOGERS DE LA MARINE ROYALE - No. 3787
sold to Comte de Schouvaloff on 27th December 1823 for 2'520 Francs.
Paul Andrejevitsch, Count Schouvaloff (1775?-1823), General and aide de camp to the Tsar Alexander I.
Born circa 1775, he enlisted in the army very young and served under General Souvaroff. He received the Cross of St. George after the successful capture of Prague in 1794. In 1799, he took part in the Italian campaign of General Souvaroff where he was fighting in the victorious battles at Cassino and Novi, before being forced to flee from Switzerland following the defeat near Zurich of the Russian army against the army of Massena. Schouvaloff was promoted to the rank of General at the age of only 25. After the unsuccessful campaign against the French in 1807, which left the Russian forces blocked in Poland, he went on to become the first to break through into Swedish territory by crossing the Tornes and overcoming a string of obstacles before succeeding in the capture of Schelefta. For this success he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-general and received a commission from the Tsar to negotiate the armistice at Pleiwitz
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